State Regulators to ask the Gaming Commission to shut down The President Casino

Casino Watch Focus has been reporting on the situation regarding the President Casino’s license. The Missouri Gaming commission has made its position very clear – they want the President closed down so the license can go to a new Missouri Casino, possibly in the Spanish Lake area of north St Louis. Now the St Louis Post Dispatch is reporting that the State will be formally asking the Commission to shut down the Casino:

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday morning, Pinnacle Entertainment, which owns the downtown riverboat, said it was told last week by state regulators that they will ask the Missouri Gaming Commission on Wednesday to close the President, effective July 1.

In a sharply-worded letter to Pinnacle’s interim CEO John Giovenco, Gaming Commission Executive Director Gene McNary says the company has let the casino operate for the last year at an “unacceptable level” and has no apparent plans to change that.

“It has become abundantly clear Pinnacle intends to hold on to the President’s license as long as possible with no intention of improving its operations,” McNary wrote.

Casino Watch Focus reported that Pinnacle planned to fix the hull of the Admiral so the President Casino would pass safety measures by the Coast Guard. In the letter filled with Securities and Exchange Commission, McNary was quoted as saying that Pinnacle’s efforts are just “another ploy aimed at retaining the President’s license while its operations continue to decline.” In response, Pinnacle has filed a lawsuit in Missouri’s Western District Court of Appeals.

Contact your local representatives and let them know the General Assembly should take that license away from the MGC and thus protect the people of MO from yet another place to lose hard to come by money. Surely 12 casinos in the State is enough. Or is the General Assembly interested in making more losers in the State?

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